HEDYOTIS CCERULEA. 
367 
should be pulled up. There are many sub- 
jects in a garden that we have not mentioned : 
we have not touched on fruit ; our sole object 
has been to treat of those things which are 
more or less necessaries, or profitable stocks, 
and, although we have treated of several 
things that a man may cultivate as luxuries, 
no person with limited means ought to lose 
sight of the one great object of appropriating 
every rod to something that he can sell if 
he cannot eat it, or that he can keep for a 
considerable time if he can neither sell nor 
eat it. These will be found to have been 
mentioned pretty nearly in the order of their 
importance, taking into the account their 
value as stock or their saleable nature as mer- 
chandise, for such, in truth, food as well as 
raiment is, and when a man can choose the 
stock he will produce, he ought to be doubly con- 
siderate how he misapplies a rod of his ground. 
A gardener is none the better for wanting 
extravagant implements, but proper ones he 
ought to have, for being obliged to make shift 
with one thing for another is a sad loss of 
time. Hoe, rake, fork, spade, garden line, 
knife, good strong box-barrow, broom, bas- 
ket, and dibble ; all these things are neces- 
sary. There is also a proper way of keeping 
them ; they need not be all in morocco cases 
and mahogany boxes, but at the same time 
we should like to see them taken somewhat 
more care of than our artist has bestowed on 
them. To be plain, a gardener, like a 
prudent housewife, should have a place for 
everything, and everything in its place, when 
not in use. 
HEDYOTIS CCERULEA. 
(Hooker.) 
BLUISH-FLOWERED HEDYOTIS. 
This little subject will be more generally 
known, perhaps, under the name of Hous- 
tonia coerulea, which it bears in many gar- 
dens. It is a neat little plant, of the class 
known as "alpines," a name 
given to plants of this habit 
by gardeners not so much 
to indicate that they are 
natives of alpine districts, 
as simply that they are mi- 
nute perennials, suitable, 
from their small size, for 
pot-culture or rock-work, 
and, indeed, requiring some 
such aid to bring them, as 
it were, within the range 
of the eye. The term itself 
was no doubt suggested by 
the fact, that the majority 
of the plants so classed do 
really inhabit alpine dis- 
tricts, and, in many cases, 
this is indicated by their 
bearing the specific name of 
alpina in direct allusion to 
this fact ; and so it be- 
came applied as a collective 
designation to all such cultivated species as 
would agree with them in general appearance 
and in cultivation. Alpines may be considered 
then as minute herbaceous perennials ; there 
are a few shrubby plants — of minute propor- 
tions too — which associate with them, but they 
are exceptions, and consist chiefly of Azalea 
procumbens, and one or two species of Salix, 
or willow, and Rubus, or bramble. 
Hedyotis coerulea is a small tufted plant of 
three or four inches high, with numerous 
erect, spreading, forked stems, spathulate or 
ovate root leaves, the upper ones being ovate- 
lance-shaped, and small salver-shaped flowers, 
the lobes or divisions of which are acute ; the 
colour of the flowers is of 
a light bluish lilac, and 
they are produced in suc- 
cession from May till Au- 
gust. It was introduced 
in 1785, from North Ame- 
rica ; and Virginia and 
Canada are particularly re- 
corded as its localities. It 
has received many names 
besides that here adopted, 
among which are Hous- 
tonia coerulea (Linnseus), 
H. patens (Elliott), H.pu- 
silla (Don), and Anotis 
coerulea (Don). There is 
a recorded variety in which 
the blossoms are white ; 
both are neat and pretty 
plants. 
When grown in small 
pots, the compact tuft 
which it forms, freely 
studded with blossoms, is far from inelegant ; 
and it is best adapted either for pot-culture 
or for placing in the front part of rock -work 
where it will be near the eye. It is of course 
hardy, but if grown in pots would require to 
be slightly sheltered, as with other alpines. 
A sandy peat soil suits it ; the plants should 
be potted at the latter end of summer, they 
have then time to get established before 
winter, and throw out strong blooms in the 
succeeding season. 
